U.S. base compatible with NATO defense system: MDA director

The U.S. and NATO defense systems are compatible and it would not be a problem to connect them, Czech media quoted Director of the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) Henry Obering as saying on Thursday.

Russian reservation is a misunderstanding, Obering said during a meeting with three deputy heads of the Czech lower house defense committee, Antonin Seda, Miroslav Svoboda, Michael Hrbata and Peter Froly, an assistant to NATO general secretary for defense investment.

Svoboda said the planned U.S. radar base in the Czech Republic would bring profits and job opportunities for local area.

The radar base in Czech would cost some half a billion U.S. dollars and local construction companies could get orders worth 150-200 million dollars, Obering said.

Individual NATO member countries have not yet formed definite stances on the possible stationing of parts of the U.S. missile defense shield in the Czech Republic and Poland, according to the report.

Nevertheless, Thursday's meeting clearly showed that the possible Czech and Polish decisions on the bases will speed up NATO's steps towards its own missile defense system, Svoboda said.

On Jan. 20, Washington proposed to locate a radar center of its National Missile Defense (NMD) system in the Czech Republic and interceptor rockets in Poland.

The project has drawn sharp criticism from Russia.

Source: Xinhua